High Wycombe magistrates have sentenced two further culprits caught fly-tipping in Buckinghamshire. One received a suspended prison sentence, the other was ordered to carry out unpaid work and both received hefty fines.
Both cases were dealt with at High Wycombe Magistrates Court on 13 April 2022. In the first case Richard Egan, 42, of Horton Road, Colnbrook, was sentenced for three offences of illegal dumping of waste on Bellswood Lane in Iver Heath that he had pleaded guilty to at an earlier hearing.
The Court heard that between 29 November 2020 and 3 January 2021, three piles of waste were found dumped on Bellswood Lane. In each case surveillance cameras installed by Buckinghamshire Council obtained images of the vehicle involved. Enforcement Officers from the Council established that the suspect vehicle was used by Egan and he was interviewed under caution at a local police station. At a court hearing earlier this month Egan admitted that he was responsible for all three offences.
In court Egan was sentenced to 300 hours unpaid work and was ordered to pay £3,536.76 towards the cost of the clear up operation and the Council’s legal costs. He was also ordered to pay a £95 victim surcharge.
In the second case, Thomas Ward, 57, of Kittiwake Way, Hayes, was sentenced having pleaded guilty earlier to two offences of illegally dumping waste.
It was revealed in court that Ward was caught out when an eagle-eyed member of the public saw an old Ford Transit tipper with its number plate covered up on the grass verge of the A355 outside Beaconsfield Services on 20 June 2021.
The witness saw the driver dump its load of tyres and then make off. The witness challenged the fly-tipper and an altercation took place. The incident was reported to and investigated by Enforcement Officers from Buckinghamshire Council.
Following a trawl of local CCTV, a suspect vehicle was identified, images of the owner of the vehicle were circulated and the suspect was recognised and identified by an Environment Agency Officer and an Enforcement Officer from a London borough. A second very similar offence occurred at Tesco’s in Rickmansworth a few days later.
Magistrates sentenced Ward to six months imprisonment on each count to run consecutively which was suspended for 12 months. He was ordered to pay £2,000 towards the clear up, £1,000 towards costs and a £159 victim surcharge.
Peter Strachan, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment said: “Both these cases demonstrate how pointless fly-tipping is. The culprits may have thought they could get away with it, but they were wrong. Buckinghamshire Council will not tolerate dumping offences. Whenever a case of fly-tipping is reported to us we will investigate and pursue offenders until all enquiries have been exhausted. Once again I would like to thank the member of the public who reported the Ward case to us which led us to find the suspect and bring him to justice.
Peter continued: “No one wins in this scenario, the culprits rightfully pay the price for breaking the law but as a Council we are also out of pocket as we don’t always recover our full costs and the public have to put up with these anti-social offences taking place in their local community. We’ll continue to prosecute culprits but let’s see if we can SCRAP this type of offending for good.”
To report fly-tipping in Buckinghamshire visit: www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/fix-my-street